Extraordinary rendition of flotilla activists is state kidnapping and must be identified as such

London — The extraordinary rendition and continued illegal detention of Spanish-Palestinian activist Saif Abu Keshek and Brazilian activist Thiago Ávila echoes the darkest chapters of the war on terror. The Zionist entity has exploited the language and narratives of the War on Terror to justify its illegal to prosecute a genocide, and now to kidnap of Sumud activists. 

Abu Keshek and Ávila were kidnapped alongside 170-odd activists when Israeli forces hijacked the flotilla off the coast of Crete on 29 April. While the remaining activists were released to Greece, the two men have continued to be held without charge on concocted terrorism allegations. 

Both are currently on hunger strike and have suffered abuses whilst in custody, including solitary confinement, and the use of an intensely bright light at all hours. Additionally, Thiago Ávila who sadly lost his mother while in prison, may not have been notified of this. 

Israeli authorities are investigating the pair for supposedly assisting “the enemy” during wartime, contact with a foreign agent, membership of a terrorist organisation, and provision of services to a terrorist organisation - with Hamas identified as the organisation in question. Adalah, the Palestinian-led legal centre representing both men, has argued that Israel has no jurisdiction over foreign nationals seized in international waters, and that the case amounts to the criminalisation of humanitarian aid. Prosecutors in Italy, whose flag one of the flotilla vessels was flying, have separately opened an investigation into the kidnapping and detention of the two men.

Anas Mustapha, head of public advocacy at CAGE, said:

"What is being done to Saif Abu Keshek and Thiago Ávila is a reminder of the worst excesses of the war on terror, when the CIA kidnapped people across the world and transferred them to Guantánamo and black sites to be tortured with impunity. Extraordinary rendition is a serious international crime. It is state-enforced kidnapping, and dressing it up in the language of terrorism does not change what it is. These men were trying to bring food to a starving population living through a genocide. They must be released immediately."